Carmine Galante
Also known as “Lilo” and “Cigar” February 21, 1910 – July 12, 1979 was the ranking Capo/de facto street boss of the Bonanno crime family, a New York City Cosa Nostra crime organization, from 1974 to 1979. Galante was rarely seen without a cigar clenched in his teeth, leading to the nickname “Cigar”. On July 12, 1979, Carmine Galante was murdered just as he finished eating lunch at Joe and Mary’s Italian-American Restaurant in Bushwick, Brooklyn along with his bodyguard, Leonard Coppola, and restaurant owner/cousin Giuseppe Turano. Cigar in mouth, the 69-year-old mobster was blasted in the face and chest at point-blank range with a shotgun. He was murdered by *Richard Kuklinski,Anthony “Bruno” Indelicato, Dominick “Big Trin” Trinchera, Dominick “Sonny Black” Napolitano, Cesare “CJ” Bonventre and Louis “Louie Gaeta” Giongetti. These men were all hired by Alphonse “Sonny Red” Indelicato, Bruno’s father. **In Philip Carlo’s book “Iceman”, which tells the story of contract killer Richard Kuklinski, Kuklinski claims that he was on the hit team that eliminated Galante. Kuklinski further states that he personally shot Galate with a 357. Magnum. According to the autopsy Galante was cut down with a shotgun, information that was inconsistent with this claim.